Travel & Creativity

November 9, 2017

"Travel brings power and love back to your life." - Rumi

If you have an opportunity to go somewhere do you take it? I've always been somewhat of a gypsy so travel does something positive for my soul. Lately in my life I've felt stagnant. I was lethargic and my motivation went out the window once New City was published. I had a feeling of, "Now what?" and the overwhelm I felt when trying to answer that question made me stick my creative head in the sand. A dear friend of mine had to travel for work and invited me to tag along. On this trip I was simply, Dana. I was alone for a lot of the time and it worked wonders. Traveling is one of the best things I can do for my personal life, for my creativity, and for my work.

Creatives with kids know that home is not always the best place for our work to thrive. During nap time you may have a free hour to write, paint, play your music, throw pottery, etc. But sometimes that's just not enough. Sometimes it takes an hour to warm up and get into the groove of what you're doing. Some people stay up late into the night working; others wake up a few hours before the day starts. Whatever your routine, stay with it. I think we get pretty good at juggling our responsibilities and as long as you give your creative work the same respect as the job that pays you or the children you are raising, it will get done. We can open the window and wait for the muse to come in and sit down with us, but it's our responsibility to open the window - to show up. This only works for me if I'm consistent with my "writing time." The labor is a labor of love and as much as I hate that expression, it is true. We don't see any reward for our work until much later, if at all. Even still, we have to keep doing it.

That being said, taking a break from the routine might be what you need to reset. I think this is what makes travel such a great thing for creative folks. It gets us out of our routine, literally out of our world. The details out there could easily inspire ten different story ideas per day! I watch the world as a writer. I see the world as if I'm reading a three-dimensional book. Having recently returned from such an incredible adventure I'm energized and ready to keep going, to keep after my goals and desires to create. Even though I didn't have much time to write while abroad, it fueled my creativity in ways I couldn't have imagined were possible. Sometimes these adventures or creative pilgrimages are few and far between but if we get a chance we must take them - make them happen!